Santa Fe IP

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in WesternGeco LLC v. ION GeoPhysical Corp. that 35 U.S.C. § 284 allows patent owners to damages that “can include lost foreign profits when the patent owner proves infringement under §271(f)(2).” Justice Thomas clearly answers the question whether these statues allow a patent owner to recover for lost foreign profits – “We hold that they do.”

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued it’s opinion in Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, et. al.  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reviewed patent validity with various proceedings for decades, with ex parte reexamination since 1980 and inter parties reexaminations since 1999.  More recently, various parties had questioned the constitutionally of the new inter parties review (IPR) authorized by Congress with the America Invents Act (AIA) of 2011.  In today’s 7-2 decision, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the IPR. 

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed dismissal of the of the “monkey selfie” case.  In their opinion, the panel concluded that “this monkey-and all animals, since they are not human-lacks statutory standing under the Copyright Act.”  In other words, animals can’t sue for copyright infringement.

World IP Day was established by WIPO to celebrate the value of patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyrights in innovation and creativity.  See the AIPLA’s website for an event near you!

Congratulations to the Santa Fe Business Incubator on their 20th anniversary!

Last week, Apple had one patent application publish describing augmented reality displays, and another publish describing autonomous vehicle control.  Looking forward to seeing where Apple goes!

IAM is hosting the third Auto IP USA on May 8th at The Henry Ford.  Details may be found on IAM’s site.

Global IP services from the City Different